NSLA is pleased to introduce Vanessa Haines (National Library of New Zealand) as our new National edeposit (NED) Program Manager. In this role, Vanessa oversees the development and implementation of the NED Strategic Plan, and works with the Chair and members of the NED Steering Group as the primary liaison point between the nine libraries that together comprise the NED collaboration, the NSLA Office and Board, and our valued external stakeholders. In this interview, Vanessa shares some information about her career path to date, including what drew her to this new role.
Can you tell us briefly about your career path?
I’ve worked in libraries pretty much my entire working career. I grew up in Scotland and started working in public libraries during university—I was the classic bookish teenager who ended up doing a literature degree and working in a library part time. I stayed because I found along the way that reading is almost incidental, an added benefit, to the things a library can provide to its community. And those things—a safe place to go, time to be alone but also time to join with others, a sense of cohesion, of finding a team of familiar faces all trying to do their best for the people they serve—are fundamental to the health and wellbeing of a community. Those things have kept me in this profession for my entire working life to date.
“Relationship building, people and collaboration take time and energy, and progress is not always linear, but I’ve found them to be rewarding and enjoyable.”
I moved to New Zealand around ten years ago and started working at the National Library of New Zealand as ‘Te Puna Services & Integrated Library Management System Stakeholder and User Specialist.’ In hindsight, this role was the best possible place to start learning about New Zealand libraries and communities. I travelled the literal length and breadth of the country, teaching librarians to use the new system we were implementing for our national resource sharing service. Those skills—picking up and understanding a technical solution quickly, talking to people, building relationships and trust, and communicating the value of the service I’m talking about—turned out to be at the heart of most of the things I did there, from resource sharing to e-resources and lately to digitising New Zealand’s historic newspapers.
What attracted you to the role of NED Program Manager?
The things I’ve enjoyed most in my previous roles have tended to revolve around relationship building, people, and collaboration. I love a good puzzle to solve, whether that’s in a system, a way forward for a strategy, or a group of stakeholders with a gnarly issue to manage. These kinds of things take time and energy, and progress is not always linear, but I’ve found them to be the most rewarding and enjoyable. This role brings together all of those things in a way I’m really excited about. NED is a world-first collaboration—I’m honored to be able to be a part of it. Collaboration is at the heart of what the NED Program Manager does, and—only a week into the role—everyone involved that I’ve met so far has been engaged, smart, and highly passionate about the service. I’m very much looking forward to the year ahead.
Could you share some insights into your personal hobbies or passions that inspire you outside of work?
I read a lot—I live around an hour outside of Wellington and that amount of regular train commuting time is very handy for reading! (In fact – find me under @nesshaines on StoryGraph—I am obsessed with the monthly reading stats graphics it collates, and I need more friends there!).
I also draw and paint—mainly watercolours—although definitely not enough. We have a standard-sized section (what Australians might call a ‘yard’) at home but are cramming more and more into it—mostly things built by my husband and our neighbours—like a wood fired pizza oven, smokehouse, and wooden greenhouse which looks remarkably like a little chapel. We grow a lot of food too—I’m trying garlic for the first time this year and currently have little green shoots, although my dog is trying his best to scupper that plan by sitting on them whenever the sun is shining. We have two dogs—Murphy and Bounce—and eight chickens. Despite growing up in a very small ex-mining village in Scotland and vowing never to live outside of a city when I grew up, I have somehow found myself in a very rural situation!
